Letter: Fascist elements exist in Republican platform

If you consult a description of fascism, there are certain key elements that remain historically consistent – and that are frighteningly consistent with key elements of the Republican platform, the GOP plan for America. For example: rampant sexism and the erosion of women’s rights; intense nationalism; disdain for human rights; use of scapegoating as unification; collusion of government and religion; fixation on national security and war; suppression of labor power and expansion and protection of corporate power; disdain for education, intellectuals, and the arts.

Let me be clear. This is not just Donald Trump’s platform. This is the official stance, the national vision, of the party. Republicans do not want a democracy. They do not want a free society. They want a theocratic, patriarchal, white supremacist corporate state. This is not hyperbole but merely descriptive of the platform contents. The country they insist they “want back” has never existed – at least, not as the United States.

And if you think Trump and Hillary Clinton are “equally bad,” or you imagine that voting for Jill Stein, or not voting at all, is the only way to be true to your conscience because you “just can’t” vote for Clinton, you might want to consider this: How will your conscience sit with a fascist administration you didn’t do your damnedest to try to prevent because you couldn’t see your vote as a practical and ethical tool for ensuring the greater good over the greater evil, but only as your private privilege of self-expression?